Elite Athletes Prone To Stomach Disorders

While a healthy fitness regimen helps to build stamina, muscle tone and longevity, it may also cause stomach and bowel problems.

A recent study just released at a meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in Phoenix, revealed that athletes, particularly elite competitors who take workouts to the next level to perform at their optimum, showed a prevalence of stomach distress.

Athletes were monitored during exercise using free weights, treadmills and stationary bicycles. More than 70 percent reported one or more lower bowel symptoms after exercising, and 43 percent experienced heartburn-like symptoms.

Researchers at the Oklahoma Foundation for Digestive Research said it was an amazingly high number of athletes experiencing gastrointestinal problems.

Runners were more prone to lower bowel symptoms, mainly diarrhea. Doctors said it results from a normal shift in blood flow from the intestinal tract to the muscles to satisfy the muscles need for oxygen.

Weightlifters and cyclists developed lower bowel problems but they were also troubled by heartburn, which occurs when stomach acid rises to the esophagus. Weightlifters got heartburn when they tensed their stomach muscles. Cyclists developed it from hunching over the handlebars, cutting the distance that acid must travel to reach the esophagus.

Weekend warriors and light exercise buffs may also suffer some of these symptoms which can be treated with over-the-counter antacids and diarrhea medicine. More than 300 athletes were used in the preliminary study, researchers said. More tests with more athletes will be conducted over the next few years.

Of note

A recent study showed that high school girls who play sports score higher in math and science. Sandra Hanson, associate professor of sociology at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., has found that sports basically teach women that it's OK to "kick butt" and this kind of go-it-alone competitiveness is crucial to science and math.

In another study done by Mary Jo Kane, director of Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, says playing sports can also help you make better choices on timed tests.

A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that having a positive attitude might keep you healthier when you are stressed. Researchers measured the immune systems of 50 law students at both the beginning and middle of their super stressful first semester.

Those who thought they would do well in their classes had a significantly higher count of white blood cells (which fight germs) than the students who were more pessimistic.

Scientists recently tested Benjamin Franklin's saying, "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." It turns out that the larks, people who go to bed early and get up at the crack of dawn, are neither healthier nor smarter than the owls, people who stay up late and sleep in. Scientists said it's just important to get between eight and 10 hours of sleep every day.

If you get a painful side stitch while walking or running, the best advice is to take it easy, personal trainers suggest. No one knows exactly what causes side cramps so it's difficult to say how to prevent them.

The best thing to do is to stop, relax and take a few deep breaths. Do not exercise through the pain, trainers say.

The Danish Cancer Society found that people who drink wine regularly are more likely to eat healthful foods such as fruit, fish, vegetables, salad and olive oil than are non-wine drinkers or people who had only the occasional glass.

Taking the dietary supplement L-arginine, already known to enhance athletic performance, once a day for six months relieved chest pain and improved blood flow in the heart patients who received the supplement.

According to the International Association for Dental Research, more and more teens are developing gum disease because of bad brushing habits and low intakes of vitamin C and calcium.

Dentists suggest brushing after meals and flossing twice a day and also getting at least 1,500 milligrams of calcium and 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C every day.

Animals that run regularly grow twice as many new cells in the part of the brain that controls learning and memory compared with their sluggish sedentary counterparts. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are now trying to find out if the same pattern exists among humans and whether exercise gives humans a brain boost.

Mentholatum Migraine Ice Pads, now out on the market, seem to be helping people with headaches. The gel packs stick lightly to the skin and provide a cooldown. For more information on headache causes and treatments, call the National Headache Foundation at 1-800-843-2256 or click on the Internet at www.headaches.org.

Studying for tests at school burns 114 calories per hour, according to the Calorie Expenditure Charts.